Wednesday, April 24, 2013

goodbye to a dear friend

david notkin, who was my boss..but more than that, a good friend... died on monday. while it wasn't a surprise, it was a shock and i wasn't ready for the news.
david was a big advocate of family, and work/life balance, and he insisted on it for his staff. family comes first. children are first. work comes after that. i spent 10 years knowing david and i have a million memorable stories, situations, jokes revolving around him. he did so much for me and the erbeck family. mostly, he was just a good human being..kind to the world.
when aaron and i first had true, who was born early, we found ourselves struggling with the mundane things of life, such as grocery shopping. i remember a sunny day, true was a week old, and we went for a walk. on our way home, aaron and i talked about how we had no food in the house, we were hungry, and i didn't want him to leave me and go to the store. i was terrified of being alone with all of that responsibility.
when we got to our doorstep, there was a bag. in the bag, food. lots of it. prepared. ready to eat. delicious, organic, yummy food. it was from david. i was so grateful for this simple gesture. more than just giving my family nourishment, this taught me a valuable lesson about friendship- and how easy it is to be there for somebody, how much that can do for them.
in 10 years, it would not be the only time that david would save me. sometimes, from myself.

i miss you friend. i miss you so much. thank you for everything. my life is filled with opportunity and many good things- and a lot of this is because of you. i hope to see you in my dreams.